Why North Carolina State will win

Bored Historian

- Because the Wolfpack (nearly) always howls when they see orange: Syracuse vs North Carolina State 1869-2018
We’ve lost to NC State teams that were 3-8, 3-7-1, 3-8 and 3-9 the previous year. (They were 9-4 last year.) They always seem to get well when they see us. I also remember another Thursday night in Raleigh when a Syracuse team I thought might win a national championship and a Heisman Trophy for Donovan McNabb played as if in a fog and lost 17-38, ruining all such dreams. We’ve only beaten them when they had a lot of injuries in Shafer’s first year and last year when Dungey had his greatest game.

- Here is our injured list, per USA Today: Syracuse Orange Injuries - NCAAF Football - USA TODAY
That’s 16 players, 7 of whom are on either the pre-season or current two deep, according to the depth chart. Only one, Tommy DeVito is listed as “likely to play”. The rest are “uncertain” at best. I do note that they say Chris Elmore missed the last game with a right leg injury. Obviously, he played. It may be that he sustained the injury in that game but I’ve found no reference to it. Elmore’s injury in the spring was to his right leg. Even if the list is inaccurate, it’s still long.

- State had 8 sacks against the Noles. Tommy already has an “owie”. What if he gets a “dingy”? He may need one to get away from the rush.

- If we couldn’t run effectively on Holy Cross how can we hope to do it against the Wolfpack? They are 6th in the country against the run, giving up just 72 yards per game.

- Ricky Person may be injured but Jordan Houston isn’t and he averaged 6.8 yards per carry against FSU. NC State people think he’s ready to bust out with a big game. Meanwhile, we’re averaging half that.

- Bailey Hockman was a 4 star guy when Florida State recruited him. He couldn’t crack the line-up there but he could be a bigfish in a smaller pond at NC State. And with the injuries we’ve got in our defensive backfield, he could have a big day.

- We are 3-0 against non-power conference teams, (117-36) but a bad 0-2 (26-104) against power conference teams. NC State is a power conference team.

Attachments

2018 Cali Winner: Passing TDs

I know what Dino said in his press conference about no change in status of injured players but that website indicates “McKinley Williams is sidelined due to a left foot injury but is targeting a return against North Carolina State on Thursday.”

Haven’t followed State this year, is it possible their rushing yards allowed are so low because teams have been shredding them through the air?

Bored Historian

I know what Dino said in his press conference about no change in status of injured players but that website indicates “McKinley Williams is sidelined due to a left foot injury but is targeting a return against North Carolina State on Thursday.”

Haven’t followed State this year, is it possible their rushing yards allowed are so low because teams have been shredding them through the air?

I think they were basing their report on Williams on Dino's hope that he'd be back for this game, expressed earlier. As to NC State's running and passing defense, here are the game by game breakdowns:
East Carolina 41r-228p
Western Carolina, (why not call it "West Carolina?) 8r-98p
West Virginia 173r-272p
Ball State 84r-333p
Florida State 53r-316p
It may be that they give up a lot of passing yards because nobody can run on them.